


Between the World and Us

by poetatertot



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Kuron is Shiro (Voltron)'s Clone, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, chilling in a hammock, validating my boy keith cause he needs it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2019-01-17 10:19:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12363579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poetatertot/pseuds/poetatertot
Summary: It may have been years since the universe was saved, but nobody is immune to memories. They cling like oil to skin and stay behind long after washing everything else away.Lucky for Keith, he has someone to lean on when he starts to doubt himself.





	Between the World and Us

**Author's Note:**

> The way Keith was treated by Shiro in most of season 4 made me so bummed, I had to write this to make myself feel better.. so please have 1.4k of Shiro validating my boy and the two of them living happily ever after!

_The world blurs past his windows as a vast emptiness, stars reduced to glittering streaks that fade the closer he becomes to the planet surface. He stares into that wide, shimmering amethyst field and sees his grave. There is no way but down._

_Someone is screaming at him from over the comms but their words are inaudible, reduced to background static as the blood rushing in his ears pumps loud enough to smother him. Keith squeezes his eyes shut tight and wishes fleetingly for it to be quick. He opens his mouth to speak his last words but his throat is squeezing so tight, he can’t_ breathe—

“Keith?”

The world flares into being fast enough to burn afterimages into his retinas. If not for the single sun blazing overhead he might’ve thought the sky was white, bright and bold in waking vigor. Warm, buttery light drifts down through the tree cover to dapple his skin.

Slowly, he pops every joint in his hands. First knuckle, second knuckle, third. His body is a wound spring he has to slowly pull into a stretch, easing stiff muscles and tight joints into relaxing.

Shiro peers down at him and smiles ruefully. Even now, after a decade of scarring and brutal weather has pockmarked his skin full of imperfections, the upward curve of his lips makes Keith’s heart ache.

“You were dreaming again, weren’t you?” His voice slides husky and soft, caressing warm skin and tender nerves alike. “You wouldn’t stop twitching.”  
  
“A memory,” Keith croaks, wincing at how his voice rips on the way out. He’s parched for a drink, mouth drier than the Amrani deserts. Shiro hands him his canteen, similarly scarred and dented from long, unkind journeys, and Keith takes a long drink to cool his nerves. “Nothing more.”

It’s been too long for anything but truths to reach Shiro. He frowns at the admission but doesn’t argue, taking the canteen back and setting it in the grass when Keith is finished.

“Mind if I sit?” He plops himself down mid-word, careful not to overturn the hammock completely. Keith finds half his body leaning into the dip of Shiro’s weight, pressing against a back of solid, corded muscle. _Warm_. “You looked lonely out here so I came to join you.”

“Thanks.” Their backyard is big enough to accommodate a small cluster of trees hedged together at the edge of a grassy woodland property; Keith loves the way everything smells spiced and earthy, loves how the birds twitter and squirrels shuffle through fallen leaves. He rolls onto his side and slips his fingers through worn cord, eyeing everything they’ve managed to gather in the last decade of their lives.

The first few months hadn’t felt real; between placing Allura on a new throne and landing back on Earth as universe-renown heroes, Keith had been ready to leap out of his skin and fly into stardust where nobody who know his name. The wiring that sparked for so long, shoving and burning to go _forward,_  finally had reached the end of its circuit. He was exhausted to his bones.

Shiro had understood. He already was a hot commodity even before their fateful launch into space, a novelty even when his limbs were all his and his skin was smooth, pure heart pumping in a chest with no steel. The stress of all those watching eyes weighed him down.

They took the first chance they saw to slip away from the limelight. Lance could become the hero he always dreamed of being for the common man. Pidge and Hunk could lead the way to Earth’s future tech. That was fine.

Keith just wanted to live in silence for once.

Shiro’s search for a small cabin in the woods was surprisingly easy — the small perks of everyone willing to please you. They said their goodbyes and drifted into nature, splitting that chain to the world that always expected so much in return for so little.

And even now it is theirs. Hammock tied between sturdy oaks, herbal plants visible on the kitchen windowsill, sunroom filled with cushiony chairs and a telescope that stands against rustic decor to eye the universe from their backyard.

Despite the strangling leap of his heart, Keith has to smile. This is all _theirs._ Nobody can ever take away what he’s had here.

“What are you thinking about?” Rough calluses slide against the angle of Keith’s jaw, tracing the edge of a face speckled with sunspots and nicks alike. Shiro had always said his face looked like the universe — blips and streaks of time and space mapped out on planes that could only be admired if you were really looking.

 _But that’s not it,_ Keith would protest. _The one who looks like the universe to me is you._

“Nothing, really.” Keith shrugs, peeking up through his lashes. Shiro slides one thumb over the shell of his ear and down, tracing cords in his neck. He shivers. “Just about us.”

“Oh?” His eyes crinkle at the corners with smile-lines, dark eyes sparkling. To Keith’s delight he leans down, pressing his face into Keith’s shoulder to kiss the bare skin there. They peek at each other, unable to suppress goofy smiles and warm cheeks.

 _How did I get so lucky?_ He wonders, thumbing at the five-o'clock shadow Shiro’s sporting. He repeats the question aloud.

“I wonder about the same thing,” Shiro confesses. His brow lowers and lips part, turning his head to rest on Keith’s shoulder. “But if we think on it too long then we’ll never be able to move past it. You know that better than anyone.”

“I know,” Keith whispers. He thumbs at the fraying cord of the hammock. “But it’s so _hard_  sometimes. I suddenly remember someone’s face and then I can’t help but wonder if I had done a little more— If I could have moved a little faster—” He swallows, clenching tightly onto Shiro’s shirt with white knuckles.

“There are a lot of things we could have done,” Shiro murmurs. “But what’s important is that we’re here now.” His prosthetic hand comes up to squeeze Keith’s other hand tightly. “Be proud of what you’ve done. There are a lot of people who stand by the decisions you’ve made, me included.”  
  
“You didn’t always agree.” Keith’s heart clenches at the memory of that false figure, shaped so well to mirror who he’s always relied on. The same body, the same voice—

Eyes so dark that Keith felt like he was going to fall forever.

Shiro sits up suddenly and grips Keith’s forearms to pull him up with him. His hands hold firm around Keith’s, fingers falling into the gaps between his own so easily.

“That wasn’t me,” he says, voice rough. He coughs, clearing his throat, and repeats the words louder. “It _wasn’t_. And no matter what that clone might have said, whatever he might have done, his words will never be mine.” Shiro’s frown softens and he leans in to rest his forehead against Keith’s. “No matter what he said, I always had faith in you. Even when you couldn’t see me.”

“I know,” Keith mumbles, chest suddenly tight. “I _know_ , but when he’s all I saw for months— I couldn’t help but believe that maybe—” He swallows hard. “That maybe.. he was right.”

Hands slide up arms and around Keith’s back, pulling him into a hug. He closes his eyes against the softness of Shiro’s cotton shirt, inhaling his familiar musk. Underneath the layers of fabric and skin he can hear Shiro’s heart beating ever steady, a lullaby to soothe his chapped and decaying fears.

_Ba-dump. Ba-dump._

“He’s gone now,” Shiro murmurs against his hair. He presses one, two kisses into Keith’s crown, smoothing the mussed hair there with one palm. “And I’ll never leave you ever again.”  
  
Keith’s mouth quirks into a weak smile. “Even if you did I would run after you. I’d catch up and get you for lying.”

Shiro’s laugh booms, startling two sparrows out of a nearby tree. “I don’t doubt you would.” He squeezes Keith tight enough for them to feel each other's heartbeats, tight enough that Keith can’t think of anything but how he’s _here, right now,_ and nothing will ever take that away from him.

“I love you,” he mumbles. Shiro rubs his back.

“I love you too.”

They went and gave everything to the world, but this right now? This is _theirs._

**Author's Note:**

> Talk to me about season 4 on [tumblr](https://keithblade.tumblr.com/) if you'd like!


End file.
